…Empire Magazine unleashed its Captain America: Civil War-centric issue this week, which provided details of Martin Freeman’s mysterious role, confirmed Gwyneth Paltrow’s return as Peter Potts, and offered some details on both Black Panther and Spider-Man, as well as offering up a batch of new images featuring the likes of Cap (Chris Evans), The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Crossbones (Frank Grillo). Meanwhile, an image arrived online of Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso’s new business card, which may have given us our first look at the MCU design for Spider-Man…
...Captain America: Civil War co-director Joe Russo has been discussing the ending to the movie, and the ramifications it will have for the Marvel Cinematic Universe going forward: “The consequences of Civil War will have an even more significant impact [than Captain America: The Winter Soldier]. In Civil War, we’re going to change the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s psychology, and it’s an extreme shift… Winter Soldier was a political thriller; this is a psychological thriller…”
…Wonder Woman wasn’t the only superhero movie filming in London this week, as some spy photos and video from the set of Marvel’s Doctor Strange also arrived online, giving us another look at Benedict Cumberbatch as the Sorcerer Supreme…
…With production on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 underway, Karen Gillan shared a set photo teasing her return as Nebula, while the latest Heroic Hollywood rumour suggests that Tommy Flanagan (Sons of Anarchy, Gotham) has signed on to appear as a Ravager, who will be Yondu’s (Michael Rooker) right hand man…
…It looks like Eric Selvig will be absent from Thor: Ragnarok, with Stellan Skarsgard revealing this week that he won’t be appearing in the God of Thunder’s third solo outing and he believes that Marvel has reserved the final film in his five-film contract for Avengers: Infinity War…
…We’re less than three weeks away from the arrival of Daredevil season two, and this week has brought us a brand new trailer for the returning series which puts the focus on the relationship between Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) and Elektra (Elodie Yung) [watch it here], while we also got some new images of The Punisher (Jon Bernthal) [see here], as well as character artwork and banners for both The Punisher [see here] and Elektra [see here]…
…It’s been rumoured that Marvel and Netflix are looking to spin off Jon Bernthal’s Punisher for his own series on the streaming service, and while Marvel’s head of television Jeph Loeb downplayed the reports as speculation this week, Bernthal has admitted that he’d been down for another outing as Frank Castle: “Frank is so filled with rage and despair that this idea of a guy prancing around in a costume with little horns beating up bad guys is absurd to him. It’s ripe for a character like Frank to come in and shit on that. What’s really interesting is that these guys are absolute enemies, but they start to understand each other. This guy is very much burned into my heart and soul. I think about him all the time. And I look at it the same way Frank would look at it. I’m a soldier, man. If they call on me, I’ll stand to attention and I’ll be ready…”
…It hasn’t been made official just yet, but it seems that Marvel and Netflix have found their Danny Rand, with various sites reporting this week that British actor Finn Jones has won the title role in Iron Fist. Jones is best known for his work in Game of Thrones, where he plays Loras Tyrell, the Knight of Flowers…
…Krysten Ritter will be returning to the role of Jessica Jones for a second season of the Netflix show as well as the The Defenders, but the actress has also admitted that she’d like to make the jump to the big screen side of the MCU for a team-up with Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man: “It would be really awesome to team up with Iron Man. That’s an interesting question because I love Jessica and I love any opportunity to play her. Obviously, it’d be really exciting to be a part of those giant, huge movies with those great characters who are already established, so it’d be awesome. I’m also really lucky because our Netflix playground is so unique and so grounded and gritty and more adult. I don’t think it’s quite R-rated but it’s close. There’s some sex scenes. So, a little bit of both! It’d be awesome if I got to pop up somewhere else. There’s always the chance that could happen. I don’t really know, they don’t tell me anything, so I’m totally stoked about the playground on Netflix…”
…The second season of Agent Carter is set to draw to a close this coming Tuesday, and you can take a look at a promo for the finale ‘Hollywood Ending’ here, along with two clips from the episode here. Meanwhile, be sure to check out Amy Richau’s review of ‘The Edge of Mystery’ and ‘A Little Song and Dance’ here, along with The Defenders TV Podcast review of ‘Smoke and Mirrors’ here…
…ABC has stepped up the promotion for the returning Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season three by releasing a promo image of Chloe Bennet’s Quake [see here], along with a batch of promo images for the midseason premiere ‘Bouncing Back’ [see here]. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. resumes on March 8th…
…With pre-production on the Marvel’s Most Wanted pilot continuing, the official logline for the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. spinoff has arrived online, and reads: “Centers on Bobbi Morse (a.k.a. Mockingbird) and Lance Hunter of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., two ex-spies and ex-spouses who are on the run with no friends, no S.H.I.E.L.D. and a long list of enemies looking to claim a bounty on their heads. Able to trust no one but each other, Bobbi and Hunter form an uneasy alliance with Dominic Fortune, a rogue adventurer with a wealth of resources and even more adversaries, who agrees to protect them so long as they help him with his own agenda. These two heroes will help anyone in need, all while trying to uncover the conspiracy that put their own lives in jeopardy…”
…Moving on to the animated Marvel universe and we’ve got a clip from this Sunday’s episodes of Ultimate Spider-Man vs. The Sinister 6 (guest-starring Doctor Strange!) [watch it here] and Guardians of the Galaxy [watch it here], while it’s also been announced that Star Trek: The Next Generation star Jonathan Frakes is set to make a guest appearance in Guardians as Peter Quill’s father J’Son of Spartax…
…Deadpool became North America’s highest-grossing X-Men movie when it overtook X-Men: The Last Stand ($234.36 million) last weekend, with the spinoff going on to cross the $500 million mark globally during the week; by close of play yesterday, the movie was sitting on $120 million worldwide and is expected to fend off competition from Gods of Egypt this weekend to take top spot at the box office for the third weekend in a row. Meanwhile, details of Ryan Reynolds’ and director Tim Miller’s pay for the movie has been revealed online, while Ryan Reynolds launched a last-minute ‘For Your Considerbation’ Oscar campaign, Stan Lee discussed the one downside to his Deadpool cameo, and a VFX video was released which delves into the creation of Colossus…
…It looks like X-Force may be back on the cards at Fox, as Deadpool writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick have revealed that they will be involved with the team movie: “We will have a hand in [X-Force],” states Wernick. “I think everything that Deadpool is involved in we will have a hand in and it’s a universe that Ryan Reynolds and us are very close to and very protective of, so I do think we would absolutely involved in that franchise as well. If it’s Deadpool related, I think you’ll see some of our fingerprints on that…”
…Deadpool got Fox’s 2016 superhero slate off to a good start, and in just a few short months the studio will release its second, X-Men: Apocalypse; this week saw the release of a new promo image featuring Professor Xavier (James McAvoy), Magneto (Michael Fassbender), Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Beast (Nicholas Hoult) and Quicksilver (Evan Peters) as well as a new look at Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), while Sophie Turner discussed the difference between her Jean Grey and Famke Janssen’s: “The difference between this and Famke’s Jean Grey is she’s young and isolated and so insecure and very alienated – even from the other mutants – because she’s so powerful. So there’s a real vulnerability to her and it’s great to see how her and Scott [Tye Sheridan] find each other through that alienation. She’s a great role to play, she’s so much fun, and her arc in the movie is amazing…”
…The X-Men TV series Legion has found a new cast member this week, with Amber Midthunder (Banshee) set to play Kerry, “a woman of action with a childlike sense of wonder and a true savant who has lived a sheltered, but never dull life.” Midthunder joins the previously announced Dan Stevens (The Guest), Aubrey Plaza (Dirty Grandpa), Jeremie Harris (A Walk Among the Tombstones) and Fargo alums Jean Smart (Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce) and Rachel Keller (Hollidaysburg)…
…Universal has announced details of the Blu-ray and DVD release for Heroes Reborn, which is set to arrive on April 12th in the States and May 9th here in the UK and will also be available as part of a box set that combinesHeroes Reborn with the original four seasons of Heroes…
…And finally, we’ve posted a few superhero-themed op-eds this week on Flickering Myth; be sure to check out Neil Calloway’s ‘Why Deadpool’s Success Should Surprise No One‘, Anghus Houvouras’ ‘Why Warner Bros. Has to Make Justice League Now‘ and Alice Rush’s ‘Women, Comic Books and Sex: It’s Time to Change the Record‘.
Gary Collinson is a writer and lecturer from the North East of England. He is the editor-in-chief of FlickeringMyth.com and the author of Holy Franchise, Batman! Bringing the Caped Crusader to the Screen.
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